Lingle orders unpaid days off for workers - St. Louis Business Journal:

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In an address broadcast from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she woulf scale back free Medicaid benefits to low-incomse adults and said the statw would delay paying some of its larget bills until July. The governore is also asking the Judiciary, the Legislature, and the Offics of Hawaiian Affairs to implement equivalenr furlough days or restrict their Hawaii law does not allow orderinv furloughs for the Departmentof Education, the Universituy of Hawaii or the Hawaii Healt h Systems Corporation, but Lingle said their spending will be restricted in an amoun equivalent to the three-days-per-month furlough. The furloughs, whicj start July 1, amount to abouy a 13.
8 percent pay cut, or aboutf $5,500 for a worker making $40,000 a As with layoffs, Linglre does not have to negotiate the furloughes with any of the unions representinhgstate workers. Lingle has said she doesn’tt want to lay off workers because of the disruptivw effect of contract rules that would enablwe senior workersto “bump” junior workers, even if they workede in different state The furloughs will save $688 Lingle said the savings are needex to close a gap of $730 million between now and June 30, as forecast by the state’s Council on Revenues May 28. All told, Hawaii is expected to see tax revenues fallby $2.
7 billion over the next two “If we do not implement the furlouguh plan, we would have to lay off up to 10,00o employees to realize an equivalent amount of savings,” Lingle The state has about 46,000 including 21,000 employees of the Department of Education. Lingld blamed the fiscal shortfall on thelingering recession, rising unemployment, droppinyg visitor arrivals, a decline in private buildiny permits, a doubling of foreclosures, and recor bankruptcy levels. The state Legislature ended its sessiomn last month by raising tax ratez onhotel rooms, high-income luxury home transactions and tobacco to help meet the budgetg shortfall.
But Lingle, a Republican whose vetoes of thosed measures were overridden by majority said she would not ask for additional tax She also rejected calls forlegalizing gambling. However, Lingler noted that 70 percent of state operatiny funds go to labor costs and that the stat e had provided employee wage increase of betweemn 16 and 29 percent over the past fouryearx “when our economy was